Using Braille in School

How Braille labels helped bring meaning to a math lesson

Author: Sally Cameron, Halifax, NS

Last year I had an eleven year old braille student whom I will call Duncan. Duncan was a reluctant math student. He leaned on me or any other adult near him for support. As a result, he could not get through one math equation without asking several questions. One of my main goals for him in math last year was for him to independently start, work on and solve a math problem. The most challenging aspect of this goal was Duncan’s fine tuned ability to stall. He would come up with every excuse possible to slow down or stop the math problems. Although Duncan worked out of a brailled math text book, the same text his school used, he was not motivated. That all changed the day I brailled the text found on real objects. Duncan was working on a lesson that required him to estimate the cost of an item based on the weight of the contents and the number of units being sold. I brought in several different items found in the grocery store, brailled the text with braille labels and gave it to Duncan with the directions to estimate the cost and then add up the grocery bill. Duncan took the real objects and with an eagerness I had never seen before searched the items for the required information. As he sat with his Perkins on his left and the grocery items on his right he started, worked on and finished the math problem on his own. The only question he asked was if he could drink one of the 200ml drinking box, after all I had eleven more. From his math book Duncan knew that information was available to him. But he would forget once he finished reading the question. By actually putting the braille on the objects he was able to bring meaning and worth to the objects and the math

Author: Robert Just, Toronto, ON

I started learning to read and write Braille at the old Halifax School for the Blind in the early 1950's and participated in (and won) several Braille-reading contests.

I have some cherished memories of Braille in school and I would like to share a particularly fond one if I may.

I was in Grade IV at the time. Our Braille teacher, Miss Pearl Campbell, was a stickler for errorless Braille and each day she would conduct a class and check each pupil's paper for errors or absence thereof. She would put two little plastic stars in the right-hand corner of the page to indicate perfection.

A paper with one to three errors was awarded one star. A paper with more than three errors, of course, garnered no stars. At the end of the school year, each student was given his/her book with the year's work in it and I kept mine from Grades III, IV, and V for years afterwards just for the sake of nostalgia. Now, perhaps, I should get to my point. One day while I was in Grade IV, Miss Campbell came to us with an idea:

"Class," she began, I was thinking of taking you on a picnic some Saturday afternoon. In order to earn this picnic, everyone in the class must produce a perfect Braille page on a designated day."

We all cheered and were filled with determination to work towards that goal. The designated day arrived and each student was sitting at his/her desk, slate and stylus at the ready, champing at the bit for Miss Campbell to enter and say "good afternoon" and to instruct us to get ready. Everyone ready with slate and stylus, she began dictating. You could have heard a pin drop in that classroom except for the pecking sounds you would have expected from all styluses working at once. Everyone seemed to be relaxed and ready to work to accomplish the task we were assigned. At the end of the session Miss Campbell collected all the papers and scrutinized them one by one, saying "perfect paper" as she went through each one. We had accomplished our feat and the date for the picnic was set. A sighted teacher, Miss Stella Fraser, was invited to come along and help out and she and Miss Campbell got together and prepared us a wonderful party. We went to a Halifax park and played all manner of games and ran around the park to work up an appetite. The Halifax "Chronicle Herald" was called in advance and a photographer came to the park for a group picture. An article about our picnic and how we earned it was written to accompany the picture. I won the Braille reading contest that year.

For about five years after graduation from high school, I studied piano and learned Braille music from a blind teacher, attaining the Grade IV level in music and theory. In the 60's and early 70's I participated in an annual rally under the sponsorship of the Atlantic Sports Car Club. The instruction sheet was in Braille and each blind navigator was expected to communicate the instructions to his/her assigned driver. In 1977, the first year I was working here in Toronto, I took second place in the rally sponsored by the British Empire Motor club and still have that trophy in my possession.

In 1971, still living in my native city of Halifax, I was chosen to be on a team transcribing textbooks into Braille for the students at the old alma mater. I found this experience most rewarding. The project was submitted to the federal government for its Opportunities for Youth program. The following winter, under the Winter Works/Local Initiatives Program, I started to work again, this time transcribing material for the CNIB's Maritime division. There were many fun-filled events in connection with this program. The first major project I undertook was the transcription of Arthur C. Clark's "2001 a Space Odyssey", which I divided into seven Braille volumes. A little later in that particular project I started doing more transcription work for the old school. I transcribed an excellent historical reference book entitled "Nova Scotia's Two Remarkable Giants", which the then history teacher and her pupils greatly appreciated. When this was completed and thoroughly checked, I transcribed the 448-page Canadian Scout Handbook published by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of Canada. This I divided into 11 large volumes. This took me into the summer of 1972, as our projects were granted a series of extensions. Some of my work included transcription of Shakespearean plays. I did "The Merchant of Venice" and "Julius Caesar" close together. Then came an economics textbook, which, like the Canadian Scout Handbook, I divided into 11 large volumes. That fall and into the following winter adventure books dominated my work, as I transcribed such works as "A Wrinkle in Time", "Two Against the North" by Farley Mowatt", and "A Hundred Million Francs" by a French author by the name of Paul Berna.

From time to time we had to digress from our regular work to transcribe monthly statements for those working in the institute's catering service known as Caterplan. Meanwhile, I became interested in amateur radio, attaining my license in 1973. Each month, when the Caterplan newsletter was released, I transcribed it and sent it out to the Braille readers who worked in the canteens around the Maritimes and each month there would be at least one amateur radio-related article.

In 1976 I came to Toronto and took the Dictaphone transcription course and had dictionaries and other references in Braille. Toward the end of the course, I assisted in the compilation of a glossary of drugs, which I utilized until my retirement in 2005, after a 28-year career as a medical transcriptionist at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital.

I attend a large Salvation Army citadel here in Toronto. About six months after my enrollment as a soldier in 1992, the officers, in association with the pastoral care committee, arranged to get me the complete Army Song Book from England. It is in eight volumes. Each week, in preparation for the Sunday morning worship meeting, someone E-mails me the song numbers. This way I can go to my seat and look them up in plenty of time. I also have a couple of hymn books and other music books and the whole Bible here in my apartment.

A lifetime with Braille as primary asset

Author: Penny Leclair, Ottawa

Braille has always been a part of my life; though things have changed in how I access Braille. As a child I used Braille to learn to read and write, so it was an automatic way to keep information and read information. My hearing declined so that I no longer could listen to books; I embraced Braille even more as I depended on the dots to provide most of the news and reading enjoyment. I have always considered a system that uses Braille to file information to be most practical. Before computer technology, all my recipes were stored in three-ring binders, and my appointments were stored on hard paper. Now, of course, computers perform the filing function, but knowing and using Braille is still important.

I think the most creative way I devised to use Braille was when I labeled a skeleton with letters that corresponded to a list of names of bones of the body. I studied anatomy, and learned 212 bones of the body by labeling a skeleton with Braille letters, taped to each bone, along with sheets of paper that explained each label in more detail. I doubt I could have learned the body as well, if I had not used Braille in the system of displaying information that was totally meaningful to me. As technology improves our lives, it does not diminish the value of knowing and using Braille. I use a communication method called British Two Hand manual, because I am Deaf-Blind. This system is based on touching parts of the hand where each location stands for a letter of the alphabet. I use Contractions of Grade 2 Braille to short form words, making it faster to receive information. Utilizing contractions of the Braille code has made a big difference in how
accurately I can receive information at a reasonable speed. One thing I know about myself and Braille is that we will remain linked for ever.

Getting an education can be a challenge when you have "special" needs. For me, back in the late 1990's, it was a serious challenge to locate qualified Intervenors. An intervenor ( a person who uses tactile sign language to help Deaf-Blind people to communicate with others, or if enough hearing might repeat at close range what is said.) When I began attending classes at
Algonquin College in Ottawa, I had to help train interested people to be intervenors. To start off I used to show them Braille contractions to short form words. I would email to them, using short formed words, actually taken from using the grade 2 Braille code. They learned the British Two Hand Manual, and practiced, this using short forms. It took many hours to have
them progress to a fast speed, so we started by using a laptop computer, and a Braille display. I would pack all three pieces of equipment, my personal equipment, into a brief case, and travel from class to class. I would sit next to the person using the keyboard of the laptop, typing into a word processing program. I would connect my Braille display to the laptop, and read as the intervenor typed, using Braille contractions. All this was done without any of us having any experience about how to! It was a challenge for us to maintain speed, but this system was fully dependent on Braille. We moved from using a laptop to using the sign language, as the new intervenors became more automatic with the use of Braille contractions and the Two Hand
Manual alphabet.

Today the intervenors use the Braille forms of words when they write personal notes for themselves, finding it a very convenient way to produce accurate notes in writing.

The strange thing is that if I indicated someone would have to learn Braille contractions, they would be intimidated, so I stopped telling the new intervenor they were learning Braille short forms. Only after they become proficient, do I explain to them that they are using contractions of the Braille code! Braille is perceived is being extremely difficult to master. It really is not harder than learning any logical system of writing or communicating.

A Braille Story from Betty Nobel

Author: Betty Nobel, Vancouver BC

Before going to school at the Jericho Hill School for the Blind, I attended a kindergarten class in Hope BC. For the most part, it was a very frustrating experience. Every day I was given a piece of plasticine and asked to make something. I wanted to learn the alphabet and couldn’t understand why I wasn’t doing the same activities as the other children.

The next year, at Jericho Hill, I was introduced to Braille. My name was on my desk. I learned to read words. I even got a book to read! In the spring of that year, I was in the hospital having my tonsils out. You can imagine my joy when I was presented with a brand new book all wrapped up in plastic. With some help, I opened it and tried to read it. Much to my horror, the lines were so close together that I couldn’t make out a word. It was my first exposure to single-spaced Braille!

My memories of reading and writing Braille as I was growing up are many and varied. I remember daily practicing with the slate and stylus with the teacher dictating to the students, always pushing us to write faster. I read many books aloud to my sister who struggled to read print due to low vision. I remember long hours in the school library browsing the shelves and choosing books. I remember writing math equations on a perkins Braille writer.

I loved to read so much that I used to hide my book under the covers and read long after I should have been asleep. One night, my mother heard me crying in the bathroom at about 3:30 am. When she asked me what was wrong, I told her that "Eva had died." At the time, I was reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. Braille has always been so useful. My life would be so different without it. On a regular basis, I read notes for meetings and presentations at work, choir anthems and hymns at church, books and magazines for leisure reading, and so much more! Without Louis Braille’s initiative and determination, I would have been deprived of many of life’s experiences. Thank you Louis.

I Loved Braille Right From The Start

Author Sandra Brooks, Kingston ON

I was totally blind from the age of one, and so went to the Ontario School for the Blind in Brantford, Ontario at age six. I can remember learning Braille. We were given cards with words on, written out in uncontracted Braille, and then written in contracted Braille. The first words I can remember on these cards were Mother and Father. We had plastic envelopes that I remember we called "houses" and we kept our cards in these envelopes.

When I was in Grade One at the Ontario School for the Blind, at Christmas my parents received a Braille Christmas Card. I remember that it had a raised velvety feeling poinsettia on the front, and the message in the card was written in Braille and print. When the card was opened completely, the alphabet was shown so that it was possible to see which dots made up which letters.

Using this and a slate and stylus, my Mother learned how to write enough uncontracted Braille that she could write letters to me when I was away at school.

It was such a special thrill for me to be able to read my own letters from home without someone having to read them for me. I can only imagine how long it must have taken her to write them, what a loving thing that was for her to have done for me.

When we were cleaning out my parents house after her death, the card was still there, definitely showing its age and the fact that it had been well used.

If memory serves me, we started learning to write in Braille with a slate and stylus at the same time we learned to read. Once we had a large enough vocabulary, we started reading books all about Dick and Jane and Spot.

I loved Braille right from the start, and have never changed my mind with respect to that. Despite all of today's technology, and the fact that I have a computer, a Braille printer, an mp3 player that will play audio books in Daisy format as well as in mp3 and text format, I prefer to read to myself in Braille and always have Braille library books and Braille magazines on hand. I have a Braille writer, but a day doesn't go by that I don't write myself a message or take down some information with a slate and stylus.

Braille made it possible for me to graduate from high school, to go on to the Royal National Institute for the Blind School of Physiotherapy in London, England, and to receive my diploma as a registered Physiotherapist. Later, still using primarily Braille, I graduated from Queens University with a B.Sc. in Physical Therapy.

Braille made it possible for me to take notes on my patients, write down information I would later type up to go on charts, and to label pieces of machinery so that I could use them independently.

Braille has helped me to label equipment in my home, to organize files, to label food items, to label clothing so that I know what colour it is. I think one of the saddest things that seems to be happening these days, is that educators seem to think young children being educated in the regular school system don't really need to learn Braille. They feel computers and audio equipment have taken its place. This is totally wrong. Without being able to read and write Braille, children are being made illiterate. It is vital that we be able to write and read, not need to rely on equipment that may not be portable, or, as we all know, can be unreliable.

I cannot emphasize enough, the enjoyment Braille gives me every day, and the independence it allows me. Yes, Braille books are bulky and take up a lot of space, but the advantages will forever outweigh the disadvantages.

I hope that Louis Braille realized what a wonderful legacy he left us, and I hope that the blind community will always cherish it and insist on its continued and increased availability.

I like the Braille

Author: Charlotte Mackinnon

I learn Braille from my interveners and Lisa and Angela, my Braille teachers. I learn Braille during class at school.

At school I do a lot of Braille projects with my intervener. For example, I read short stories and answer questions from the story. During my winter break I read the book called "All That Jazz". I really like that book. That helped me relax. Sometimes when I work on a unit my intervener Brailles the story for me for that unit. I draw pictures on the brailler. I think that is fun.
I use Braille on the elevator downtown. I was surprised to see Braille at the hospital. At CNIB I see a lot of Braille on the wall. But I would like to see Braille everywhere.
I like to use Braille when my eyes are tired. Also, I like to use big print when my eyes are good.

If an archaeologist unearths my house 200 years from now, he will find Braille in my house. He will find my Braille book and story and cards.

Braille Can Change An Entire Life

Author: Laetitia Mfamobani Vancouver, BC

In general, people know Braille just as a method of writing used by blind people. That’s true, but in my opinion, Braille is more than a simple writing method. Braille can change an entire life. It can make someone happy.

This was my case. I was born in Gabon (Africa). At age 12 I lost my sight and stopped my studies for five years. I was so sad and had no hope.

In 1996, a famous lady started a foundation for handicapped children and teenagers. I went there to learn Braille. After some weeks, I was able to restart my studies. At this moment I thought, hope is possible now. In 2000, I got my high school diploma (BPC) and 2003 my college diploma in math and philosophy (Baccalauriat). My good grades permited me to obtain a scholarship to study in Sherbrooke University (Quebec Canada(. I got a Bachelor degree in political sciences one year ago.

Now, I’m learning English at Vancouver Community College. When I finish, I will go back to University to take a Master’s degree.

Braille transformed my life. Sixteen years ago, nobody could imagine that my life would have been what it is today. Braille has been very useful for me.

My Braille Experience

Author: Tanya Peterson, Calgary, AB

It all started in grade 6 when I went to a new school, I was scared because I did not know what could happen and my sight had gotten a little worse then it was before, I tried reading print before but it did not go so well and one day during the year someone came to teach me about Braille and ever since then I have been learning Braille,.
It was really hard to learn at first and I was really slow and now that I’ve practiced and read more, I have gotten better and better and brailing and it has gotten easier. My Braille Experience

Now it was time for junior high, more subjects, more kids, and different teachers for each class, which meant more books and lockers and getting to know the school. Getting to know the school was the easy part, it was the reading Braille and the large books that bugged me so the teacher that is teaching me Braille helped me get organised with all my books, so I now have all my books in each classroom to make it easier on me. As for the Braille my teachers give it to the teacher that teaches me Braille and she will Braille them out for tests so I don’t strain my eyes or get a bad head ache so I can concentrate on the work that I am doing.

I now love to read, I enter contests, I write poems and so much more.
Here is one of the poems I wrote.

B – Braille is easy to read
R – Reading a book in Braille is fun to do
A – Awesome contractions to read such as knowledge, which is a k
I – I read Braille with my fingers and not my hands
L – Looking at print is vary hard
L – learning Braille is very fun
I – I love to Braille stuff on the Brailler
N – Nighttime is fun because I can read in the dark and you can’t, haha!
G – Gee I’m glad I know Braille

What Braille means to me, is that it makes me who I am and what I am. Braille has helped me in the way that it has given me the option to read, because before I learned Braille I told someone that all I wanted to do was read, and Braille has given me that opportunity. What Braille means to me is instead of straining my eyes to see the print I can just feel the bumps and give my eyes a rest, I can even close them if I wanted to. Braille Is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, I don’t know what I would do with out Braille in my life, it has helped me so much, in the sense that I can read along with my classmates.

THANK YOU LOUIS BRAILLE!!

Braille Heroes

Author: Sandra Friesen, Windsor, ON

Dr. Bertman and I met because he taught a series of courses on ancient Greece, Rome and Egypt that I was interested in. He became one of my staunchest allies at university. When my taped textbooks failed to materialize, or segments arrived too far apart to make much difference, Dr. Bertman recorded supplemental tapes. Such was the case with a textbook on ancient Greek that was being transcribed by the University of Hawaii. When my spirits sagged, Dr. Bertman spurred me to greater heights. I might have given up otherwise. Obviously I inspired something in him to merit his time and effort. We became fast friends and remain friends to this day.
How and why I came to teach Dr. Bertman Braille eludes me, but he took to it like a plant to water. Was it because the university I attended was slow to set up a technology unit for exceptional students and we had to dream up alternative way of doings things? Or was it because Dr. B. liked to assign surprise quizzes in ancient Greek class and I wanted to participate. Whatever the reason, Braille became another tool in our toolkit. Essay themed exams were typed for obvious reasons, but multiple-choice exams could be responded to in Braille.
My chance to thank Dr. Bertman in a big way came in 1996 when I was invited to nominate him “teacher of the Year.” Another nuggets of wisdom, Dr. Bertman told his audience that the best student is the one the teacher learns from. Nowadays we communicate via email and print letters. But there are the occasional Braille notes and cards signed in Braille.
Dr. Bertman is my hero.

Louis Braille, you’re my hero too. Happy birthday!
I am delighted to add my voice to those who will be honouring Louis Braille next year.

I’ve been using Braille since the age of six and I love it. When I encounter braille in unexpected places, I rant and rave. I know people around me think I’m nuts. Be it on the door of the Ladies’ at the Tim Horton’s, the elevators at City Hall, a changing table at Wendy’s or the emergency exit on a Greyhound bus I proclaim my love of Braille by saying: “Well, Hello there!” My most unexpected encounter with Braille to date was on the Cuban convertible peso. Whereas Canadian money has full cells denoting the amount of the bill, the Cuban Convertible Peso has actual Braille numbers minus the number sign. Way to go, Cuba!

Braille is enhancing my ability to complete a course in basic conversational Spanish from the Hadley School for the Blind. I must respond to each unit on tape but when I’m ready to study the next unit, I use both the cassette and Braille course materials as learning aids. The tapes help me to actually speak Spanish and learn its rhythms, the Braille text allows me to see Spanish in written form. For me the tapes alone wouldn’t suffice. Having a text in Braille cements the language more firmly in my mind.

My Brailliant 40 Display enables me to be a much more proficient computer user. Braille is great on occasions when JAWS develops tonsillitis suddenly and inexplicably, or just doesn’t feel like talking. Sometimes I wonder.

I’m in a unique position to promote Braille. I serve on the Windsor accessibility advisory Committee. An entrenched perception of city Council is that Braille is one of the most expensive methods of accommodation. When I think of how and where tax dollars are being squandered, the expense of employing Braille as a method of accommodation is really minimal. Of course the issue is more complicated than that. However, I still believe the issues surrounding Braille are more attitudinal than anything else. How to convince them? I do know that not trying to convince them isn’t the solution.

I love Braille so much that I promote it around the world. I’ve been passing along Braille magazines since I was twelve years old. My aim is not to impose my culture on others through literature, but rather to put braille in the hands of blind citizens in other countries. By becoming Braille literate they are so much closer to being equal members of their communities. They’re able to think, converse and generate ideas. Through knowledge gained by reading they can contemplate their own destiny and their country’s place in the world. The other side of the coin entails exposure to ideas that may be out of step with other beliefs, reminders of the gap between rich and poor, etc. However, were I Jane in Malawi, or Sabah in Israel the window on the world that Braille affords would be far more preferable to me than illiteracy and isolation. Currently I send Braille magazines to Malawi and Israel.

My home is a veritable museum to Braille. I invite all archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, librarians, and graphologists to visit now and in the future. The museum is open seven days a week. Admission is free.
I live in an apartment on the fifth floor of this building so future archaeologists will be sifting a middle layer.
Before the excavation commences, a seriously diligent archaeologist will have put together a composite sketch of the lives of people who lived here. She will then have a better understanding and perspective of certain artefacts as they emerge. If she was alerted to the site without much time to prepare, repeated unearthing of certain artefacts will be her best teacher.
Amidst the glass and wood and metal of this particular layer she will uncover several volumes collapsed in on themselves. They will be recognizable as books only by their pebbly hard covers, faded ink and faint etchings of dots. Further research will tell her that she has found the King James Version of the Bible in eighteen Braille volumes and a two-volume Braille hymnbook. Except for particles of plastic combs and metal staples, constant sifting and shifting and exposure to the elements will reduce my collection of soft-covered books and other materials to a soggy mess. Our archaeologist might be very curious about the faint outline of dots on a soft, pliable, very brittle plastic-like material.
My shell of a computer might not offer up much evidence, but with a little imagination and a lot of guesswork, our archaeologist will glean that the person who lived here was not only literate, but could communicate on many levels using alternative methods to do so. She will have better luck establishing the history and use of my metal slate and brailler and the remnants of my plastic slate. Patience and very careful manoeuvring of her spoon will reveal a carrot-shaped writing implement to go with the slates.
A cataclysmic moment would occur when our when our archaeologist came upon a series of flat plastic cartridges threaded with ribbon. If the excavation allotted a generous budget and the right people are on staff, research concerning these mysterious objects and their function can begin without delay. It will take the concerned efforts of several disciplines to establish time use and history of these objects. One of them will sacrificed in the name of science on the assumption that it is astound recording. It may never to determined what these objects are. If the right equipment can be found, and the right people are involved, it will come to light that the cartridge is a cassette containing Braille data and the machine used to used to input that data was called a Versa-Braille. Really intense focus on the project would place the time as the late twentieth century and the use of this invention as an exciting chapter in the era of paperless Braille.
Our hard-working archaeologist would uncover a smattering of fragmented, dot-studded plastic surrounding many household items. Was the person who lived here a graffiti artist, a decorator, or an avid Braille label fanatic?

Lighter moments would occur upon discovery of what might be classified as notions and novelties—a Braille-labelled Rubik’s cube, a pewter book on a key chain with “read for fun” in Braille, a plastic full cell n a key chain, Braille dominoes, Braille scrabble and Braille monopoly. A curse will be visited on all excavation personnel who dare to encase, enclose, situate or otherwise house these very special artefacts in glass display

Braille and Me

Author: Robert Just, Toronto, ON

I started learning to read and write Braille at the old Halifax School for the Blind in the early 1950's and participated in (and won) several Braille-reading
contests.

I have some cherished memories of Braille in school and I would like to share a particularly fond one if I may.

"Class," she began, I was thinking of taking you on a picnic some Saturday afternoon. In order to earn this picnic, everyone in the class must produce a perfect Braille page on a designated day."

In 1971, still living in my native city of Halifax, I was chosen to be on a team transcribing textbooks into Braille for the students at the old alma mater. I found this experience most rewarding. The project was submitted to the federal government for its Opportunities for Youth program. The following winter, under the Winter Works/Local Initiatives Program, I started to work again, this time transcribing material for the CNIB's Maritime division. There were many fun-filled events in connection with this program. The first major project I undertook was the transcription of Arthur C. Clark's "2001 a Space Odyssey", which I divided into seven Braille volumes. A little later in that particular project I started doing more transcription work for the old school. I transcribed an excellent historical reference book entitled "Nova Scotia's Two Remarkable Giants", which the then history teacher and her pupils greatly appreciated. When this was completed and thoroughly checked, I transcribed the 448-page Canadian Scout Handbook published by the National Council of the Boy Scouts
of Canada. This I divided into 11 large volumes. This took me into the summer of 1972, as our projects were granted a series of extensions. Some of my work included transcription of Shakespearean plays. I did "The Merchant of Venice" and "Julius Caesar" close together. Then came an economics textbook, which, like the Canadian Scout Handbook, I divided into 11 large volumes. That fall and into the following winter adventure books dominated my work, as I transcribed such works as "A Wrinkle in Time", "Two Against the North" by Farley Mowatt", and "A Hundred Million Francs" by a French author by the name
of Paul Berna.

I Wanted To Be Independent

Author: Khadija Mohamedbhai, Brantford ON

I have been using Braille since 1997. I use it for a lot of things, recipes, phone numbers, notes when doing presentations, making short notes for myself when I am out with friends and family, just about anything you would want to write down with a pen and paper. I am currently studying to be a rehabilitation teacher. I am attending Mohawk College. My practicum will begin in April 2008 and I will be finished and ready to look for a job in August 2008.

I grew up in Tanzania. I learned Braille by correspondence from the Hadley School for the Blind. It took a long time, about a year, because the lessons had to travel back and forth between Tanzania and the United states by mail. I was 17 years old and had finished high school. I had struggled to use print with my poor eyesight. We didn’t have much technology in Tanzania. We borrowed a Perkins Brailler from a primary school for blind children.

I wanted to be independent. The CNIB in Edmonton accepted me as an international student and so I came to Canada. I lived with family friends and adapted to the Canadian life style in a very short time. I completed a diploma in office administration at nor quest College in Edmonton so that I could meet the entry requirements for Mohawk College.

In my opinion, Braille is very important for any blind person because these days a lot of public places are implementing the use of Braille for example, in the elevators, bank machines, washroom signs, restaurant menus etc. I learned to use a slate and stylus in Edmonton and I find it very convenient. I don’t carry my laptop with me everywhere I go but I do carry slate and stylus in my purse every where I go. I also use JAWS and Openbook, but I still need Braille. As a Rehabilitation Instructor, one of my duties will include teaching Braille. I am looking forward to teaching my clients and share the joy of independence with the use of Braille.